The Squire staggered as if the breath had been knocked out of him, and,
for want of a better seat, sate down on the Stocks.
All the female heads in the neighbouring cottages peered, themselves
unseen, through the casements. What could the Squire be about?--what
new mischief did he meditate? Did he mean to fortify the stocks?
Old Gaffer Solomons, who had an indefinite idea of the lawful power
of squires, and who had been for the last ten minutes at watch on
his threshold, shook his head and said--"Them as a cut out the mon,
a-hanging, as a put it in the Squire's head!"
"Put what?" asked his granddaughter.
"The gallus!" answered Solomons--"he be a-goin to have it hung from the
great elm-tree. And the Parson, good mon, is a-quoting Scripter agin
it--you see he's a taking off his gloves, and a putting his two han's
togither, as he do when he pray for the sick, Jeany."
That description of the Parson's mien and manner, which, with his usual
niceness of observation, Gaffer Solomons thus sketched off, will convey
to you some idea of the earnestness with which the Parson pleaded the
cause he had undertaken to advocate. He dwelt much upon the sense of
propriety which the foreigner had evinced in requesting that the Squire
might be consulted before any formal communication to his cousin; and
he repeated Mrs Dale's assurance, that such were Riccabocca's high
standard of honour and belief in the sacred rights of hospitality,
that, if the Squire withheld his consent to his proposals, the Parson
was convinced that the Italian would instantly retract them. Now,
considering that Miss Hazeldean was, to say the least, come to years of
discretion, and the Squire had long since placed her property entirely
at her own disposal, Mr Hazeldean was forced to acquiesce in the
Parson's corollary remark, "That this was a delicacy which could not be
expected from every English pretender to the lady's hand." Seeing that
he had so far cleared ground, the Parson went on to intimate, though
with great tact, that, since Miss Jemima would probably marry sooner or
later, (and, indeed, that the Squire could not wish to prevent her,)
it might be better for all parties concerned that it should be with
some one who, though a foreigner, was settled in the neighbourhood, and
of whose character what was known was certainly favourable, than run
the hazard of her being married for her money by some adventurer or
Irish fortune-hunter at the watering-places she yearly visited. Then he
touched lightly on Riccabocca's agreeable and companionable qualities;
and concluded with a skilful peroration upon the excellent occasion
the wedding would afford to reconcile Hall and parish, by making a
voluntary holocaust of the Stocks.
As he concluded, the Squire's brow, before thoughtful, though not
sullen, cleared up benignly. To say truth, the Squire was dying to get
rid of the Stocks, if he could but do so handsomely and with dignity;
and if all the stars in the astrological horoscope had conjoined
together to give Miss Jemima "assurance of a husband," they could not
so have served her with the Squire, as that conjunction between the
altar and the Stocks which the Parson had effected!
Accordingly, when Mr Dale had come to an end, the Squire replied with
great placidity and good sense, "That Mr Rickeybockey had behaved very
much like a gentleman, and that he was very much obliged to him; that
he (the Squire) had no right to interfere in the matter, farther than
with his advice; that Jemima was old enough to choose for herself,
and that, as the Parson had implied, after all she might go farther
and fare worse--indeed, the farther she went, (that is, the longer
she waited,) the worse she was likely to fare. I own for my part,"
continued the Squire, "that, though I like Rickeybockey very much, I
never suspected that Jemima was caught with his long face; but there's
no accounting for tastes. My Harry, indeed, was more shrewd, and gave
me many a hint, for which I only laughed at her. Still I ought to have
thought it looked queer when Mounseer took to disguising himself by
leaving off his glasses, ha--ha! I wonder what Harry will say; let's go
and talk to her."
The Parson, rejoiced at this easy way of taking the matter, hooked his
arm into the Squire's, and they walked amicably towards the Hall. But
on coming first into the gardens they found Mrs Hazeldean herself,
clipping dead leaves or fading flowers from her rose-trees. The Squire
stole slily behind her, and startled her in her turn by putting his
arm round her waist, and saluting her smooth cheek with one of his
hearty kisses; which, by the way, from some association of ideas, was a
conjugal freedom that he usually indulged whenever a wedding was going
on in the village.
"Fie, William!" said Mrs Hazeldean coyly, and blushing as she saw the
Parson. "Well, who's going to to be married now?"
"Lord, was there ever such a woman?--she's guessed it!" cried the
Squire in great admiration. "Tell her all about it, Parson."
The Parson obeyed.
Mrs Hazeldean, as the reader may suppose, showed much less surprise
than her husband had done; but she took the news graciously, and made
much the same answer as that which had occurred to the Squire, only
with somewhat more qualification and reserve. "Signor Riccabocca had
behaved very handsomely; and though a daughter of the Hazeldeans of
Hazeldean might expect a much better marriage in a worldly point of
view, yet as the lady in question had deferred finding one so long,
it would be equally idle and impertinent now to quarrel with her
choice--if indeed she should decide on accepting Signor Riccabocca. As
for fortune, that was a consideration for the two contracting parties.
Still, it ought to be pointed out to Miss Jemima that the interest of
her fortune would afford but a very small income. That Dr Riccabocca
was a widower was another matter for deliberation; and it seemed rather
suspicious that he should have been hitherto so close upon all matters
connected with his former life. Certainly his manners were in his
favour, and as long as he was merely an acquaintance, and at most a
tenant, no one had a right to institute inquiries of a strictly private
nature; but that, when he was about to marry a Hazeldean of Hazeldean,
it became the Squire at least to know a little more about him--who and
what he was. Why did he leave his own country? English people went
abroad to save; no foreigner would choose England as a country in which
to save money! She supposed that a foreign doctor was no very great
things; probably he had been a professor in some Italian university. At
all events, if the Squire interfered at all, it was on such points that
he should request information."
"My dear madam," said the Parson, "what you say is extremely just. As
to the causes which have induced our friend to expatriate himself,
I think we need not look far for them. He is evidently one of the
many Italian refugees whom political disturbances have driven to our
shore, whose boast it is to receive all exiles of whatever party.
For his respectability of birth and family he certainly ought to
obtain some vouchers. And if that be the only objection, I trust we
may soon congratulate Miss Hazeldean on a marriage with a man who,
though certainly very poor, has borne privations without a murmur; has
preferred all hardship to debt; has scorned to attempt betraying her
into any clandestine connection; who, in short, has shown himself so
upright and honest, that I hope my dear Mr Hazeldean will forgive him
if he is only a doctor--probably of Laws--and not, as most foreigners
pretend to be, a marquis, or a baron at least."
"As to that," cried the Squire, "'tis the best thing I know about
Rickeybockey, that he don't attempt to humbug us by any such foreign
trumpery. Thank heaven, the Hazeldeans of Hazeldean were never
tuft-hunters and title-mongers; and if I never ran after an English
lord, I should certainly be devilishly ashamed of a brother-in-law
whom I was forced to call markee or count! I should feel sure he was
a courier, or runaway valley-de-sham. Turn up your nose at a doctor,
indeed, Harry!--pshaw, good English style that! Doctor! my aunt married
a Doctor of Divinity--excellent man--wore a wig, and was made a dean!
So long as Rickeybockey is not a doctor of physic, I don't care a
button. If he's _that_, indeed, it would be suspicious; because, you
see, those foreign doctors of physic are quacks, and tell fortunes, and
go about on a stage with a Merry-Andrew."
"Lord, Hazeldean! where on earth did you pick up that idea?" said Harry
laughing.
"Pick it up!--why I saw a fellow myself at the cattle fair last
year--when I was buying short-horns--with a red waistcoat and a cocked
hat, a little like the Parson's shovel. He called himself Doctor
Phoscophornio--wore a white wig, and sold pills! The Merry-Andrew was
the funniest creature--in salmon-coloured tights--turned head over
heels, and said he came from Timbuctoo. No, no; if Rickeybockey's a
physic Doctor, we shall have Jemima in a pink tinsel dress, tramping
about the country in a caravan!"
At this notion, both the Squire and his wife laughed so heartily that
the Parson felt the thing was settled, and slipped away, with the
intention of making his report to Riccabocca.